“Disappointment” with Frank Clark, but no fine or suspension

The Seahawks met this week with defensive end Frank Clark to express their “disappointment” over his online criticism of a female writer of domestic-violence stories. The team did not fine or suspend its pass-rushing defensive end. Tony Overmantoverman@theolympian.com

The Seahawks met this week with defensive end Frank Clark to express their “disappointment” over his online criticism of a female writer of domestic-violence stories. The team did not fine or suspend its pass-rushing defensive end. Tony Overmantoverman@theolympian.com

Two years ago, the Seahawks drafted the societal issue of domestic violence into their locker room.

On May 2 Weiner wrote for Bleacher Report a story on Hardy and the league’s issues with domestic violence and assault. Weiner said alongside that Hardy story last week she shared the piece she wrote on Clark two years ago.

It was produced inside team headquarters. The bottom right of the tweet shows a location tag of the Seahawks’ Virginia Mason Athletic Center, in Renton.

Clark’s arrest in late 2014 stemmed from an incident with a 20-year-old Ohio woman on a Saturday night at a hotel in Perkins Township outside Sandusky, Ohio, about an hour south of the Michigan campus. As is standard for the charge in most states, Clark was booked into Erie (Ohio) County Jail before being released on bond. The disposition of the charge came in April, 2015, weeks before Seattle drafted him: reduced in a plea bargain to “persistent disorderly conduct,” a fourth-degree misdemeanor.

Clark has by all known accounts been a trouble-free citizen since entering the NFL. He is emerging as a key to Seattle’s defense, following a 10-sack season in 2016.

But his judgment this week of posting without thinking, especially in context to how he entered the league, was alarming. Not just to you or me. To his employers.

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